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Originally posted by LandDestroyer:
I wonder if they have to rebuild the entire program from the ground up at some point in the future if they'll consider changing to a subscription service (you get all cards but you pay a monthly fee and possibly pay to enter tournaments). Obviously that would annoy some people who've spent money accumulating cards and consider it an investment. I wonder what arguements there are out there for how they could do that. I've never paid to play magic online b/c I've been worried about crashes, misclicks, and just in general not wanting to have to have a digital playset of things.

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I run a subscription service for my clan already.

I don't think that WotC will do this. I think that if WotC offers this service that the value of cards in the secondary market will be drastically affected in two ways both negative. By offering a subscription service WotC will have to do one of two things: either buy back the cards that are in circulation or create more for their service. By printing more cards they will destroy the value of the cards and further flame the fires of dissent amongst the MTGO critics. By buying back the cards for the subscription service they will cause the prices to sky rocket. Either way it isn't good for the environment.

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Originally posted by JayC:
I never understood how such a profitable game had such a HORRIBLE online system and, despite the recent update looking a lot better, it still looks like trash. It just doesn't make sense to me. I think they're trying to continue on an engine or platform that can never provide what our eyes, in modern times, would expect and it's highly disappointing. If MTG weren't a great game, this thing would flop from sheer ugliness, alone.

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The game of magic was invented as a card game not a video game. When they outsourced the concept of MTGO to a third party they took a gamble. They made the wrong bet. Who knows maybe the online experience would have turned out differently if they would have chosen a different contractor to make the game or hired a group of computer architects to liaise with Leaping Lizards or who ever the company was and keep them correct.

The problem is that WotC is a game development company not a software development company. WotC should take some of the multi-milliions of dollars that they profit every year and buy a computer game development company and have them do the work.

Computer games are not like they used to be. It isn't just a bunch of computer geeks pounding out code. Now there are graphic artists, User Interaction specialists, coders, testers, performance testers, network programming specialists to name some of the very specific roles that are a part of gaming development. Instead of trying to assemble a team WotC or Hasbro should just buy an already established company. It will cost them but it will be worth it.

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Originally posted by Nitelite:

The client is terrible. It would have appeared outdated 15 years ago, never mind NOW.

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This is where I disagree with most of the critics. The client isn't great but it is functional. When I am playing a game and I look at the screen I see what I need to see to play the game.

I very rarely use any of the other functions of the client such as the casual rooms or what ever MTGO might have. All that I care about is playing games and making some trades every now and then. The current client allows me to do that. I don't want the client to be an alternate dimension escape from reality type environment that World of Warcraft creates. I'm online to play cards.